Dried pasta - what's the difference?

*when buying dried!

Pasta from Gragnano not far from Naples, is generally the best. It is still made the traditional way.
You really can taste the difference why buying dried.

I make my own, no comparison and I wouldn’t go back to the shop bought stuff. I do cheat in that I have an automatic machine you just chuck egg, flour and water in, I gave up with the kneading a while back but if you can be bothered that is even nicer.

I buy store brand tri-coloured rotini. It is the house favourite. I have tried others and no one likes them especially not the ones made with whole wheat flour.

Personally I don’t notice any difference* between dried varieties - I often buy Asda’s Smartprice penne for e.g. macaroni cheese, and any old spaghetti for spag Bol.

Obviously the fresh variety is nicer, but I find the package sizes either not quite enough, or just too much. At least with dried you can use exactly as much as you need.

*I can accept that my taste buds may not be of the most ‘gourmet’ variety though!

I have found that, wouldn't you know it, the super expensive top dried brand of wholemeal spaghetti tastes much nicer than supermarket own. The latter reminds me I'm being worthy, whereas the former is just delicious 😋. Not so bad when it's on offer, but a lot more than cheap white spaghetti.

No.

I have never been able to detect any difference at all between the various brands of pasta, except the price!

Oh sorry. I see. I imagine you get what you pay for. Cheap items normally have cheap ingredients.

Skydancer

I don't know what the ACTUAL difference is but fresh does taste better in my opinion.

OP was not asking about the difference between fresh and dried, but between the cheap dried and the more expensive ones.

There is obviously a huge difference between dried and fresh also in the calorie intake.

I don’t mind dried spaghetti, macaroni or penne, but much prefer fresh for lasagna. Not that I make the lasagna that’s hubby job. DGD just loves her Pappa’s lasagna and our AC’s argue over who’s taking home any leftovers

I actually prefer dried pasta to fresh, as do many others I think?

I think that the cheaper pasta has a softer texture, even if carefully cooked. Personally I like a bit more "bite" though I know that others like softer pasta.

I believe the more expensive pasta uses higher quality semolina flour and the drying process is slower.

Deedaa

More expensive pasta is made using bronze dies which give the pasta a rougher surface. This means the sauce sticks to the pasta better. Thin sauces will run off cheap pasta and pool in the plate. Italians also think that the water used to make the pasta is important. They use far less sauce in their pasta sauces than we we do so you can really taste the difference in the pasta.

I wasn't sure why some pasta has a rougher texture than others so thanks Deedaa
I knew the sauce sticks to that type of pasta better.

If only there was a similar gf pasta!

More expensive pasta is made using bronze dies which give the pasta a rougher surface. This means the sauce sticks to the pasta better. Thin sauces will run off cheap pasta and pool in the plate. Italians also think that the water used to make the pasta is important. They use far less sauce in their pasta sauces than we we do so you can really taste the difference in the pasta.

The supermarket own ones tend to be a bit more chewy and not quite as nice but you can hardly tell the difference.

We've had both and to be honest I couldn't tell the difference.

I use supermarket own brand pasta and it’s fine with a lovely sauce .

I always use cheap spaghetti. With a tasty sauce on top it is surely very difficult to tell the difference.

I buy the cheap supermarket spaghetti.

Don’t have it that often, but with my home made pasta sauce, good quality beef mince, onions, garlic, peppers, it seems fine.

I don't know what the ACTUAL difference is but fresh does taste better in my opinion.

I think it’s the sauce that makes the difference!

I agree with ordinarygirl - it's to do with the quality of the flour used. When I make my own pasta I use 00 grade flour which is more finely milled. If I have run out of that I've used ordinary plain flour in the past and the difference isn't really in the taste but in the texture. 00 grade flour gives the pasta a silkier texture, whereas plain flour gives a coarser, grainier version.

I imagine a basic flour rather than a finer flour but not much in terms of taste. I generally find the basic flour pasta takes longer to cook but I don't know why